HuggyU2

Epic event. One hell of a party. Too bad none of you T-6 guys brought one in. You would have enjoyed it. BTW, those were some gorgeous gals with you in the VIP tent, Bobsan.

Although I am not in the know, I cannot imagine this being a possibility. USERRA is "law of the land", and will take an act of Congress to make significant changes. The AF is only one of seven uniformed services: have they coordinated with the other six? The airline industry isn't the only employer of military personnel. They don't get to decided the rules unilaterally. I couldn't get a couple of safety-related 847's approved through the bureaucracy my last 2 years in the AF. How will they manage to change USERRA?

You need to consider "portal to portal time". Example: for me to fly Sacramento-LAX is about 1:40 of time. However, I must leave my house 2:15 prior to the flight to get there, park, and get to the gate (no bags to check). At LAX, it will take 10 minutes to unload the aluminum tube, and 10 more minutes to get to a taxi. Then I need to travel to my destination... maybe an hour from LAX? So that's about 5.5 hours from my house to the destination. And a good bit of that is time that I cannot be "productive", because I'm driving, walking through security, boarding, cell phone off, etc... Yes, well short of 14 hours... but not as bad as it seems initially. In other scenarios, the results are different.

That applies to me. It is not a threat... at least not for the foreseeable future. If you're an airline pilot in your 40's, you've got nothing to worry about WRT this robot. As for the pilot shortage, I still do not believe it is here. United just hired a friend, and then a month later, changed their minds on his class date and rolled him 6 months. In fact, few if any new-hire classes until then. Shortage? The only shortage that exists is the one developing in the USAF.

OK... why exactly is this robot so amazing? I fly the 737-800NG, and it already has a computer on board that will fly the jet, and even do an auto-land. Get rid of this robot, and you can keep the F/O's seat installed, and have a flight attendant join you for the trip. When you've got a robot that can make complex decisions, let me know. Until then, continue to crash as many Global Hawks as you like.

1. Don't know. Refer to the AFI... can't recall which one in the Medical category though. It's been posted a number of places here, however. 2. Don't know, but most things are waiverable. 3. If it is covered by hair, I doubt they will see it.

It's a good question that I'm not really sure of the answer. And, frankly, having been gone almost three years, my opinion is of little value. My best... and possibly inaccurate... answer is that it I just enjoyed the flying and people so much that it made the BS tolerable. But toward the end, it did seem the BS was getting much worse. But, once again, the perspective of a guy who was about to retire. There are others on here who can speak to the issue better. However, they are currently in a good place leadership-wise with excellent SQ/CC's, OG/CC, and inbound RW/CV.

I'd still go back and fly the U-2, in peacetime. Unfortunately, if things escalated (wartime) to the point where they needed me back even more, I have zero faith that the fucking AFPC bureaucracy could make it happen... even if the squadron was BEGGING for pilots. Honestly, AFPC simply couldn't get through the mountains of paperwork and levels of coordination. You'd be back in your Viper and I'd be back in the Deuce after it was all said and done. I think Maj Gen Poore is still the AFPC/CC. If so, she and the Executive Director need to be thrown out personally by Gen Goldfein. AFPC has failed, and how they do business needs to be re-thought. edit: I looked and the E.D. is fairly new, so I'd give her another 9 months to prove her worth before I shitcanned her.

So, let's say none of this gets fixed, and the problems continue at their current pace. Your opinions: what will the AF look like in 5 years?

"Traditionally" is probably correct. However, we had a few U-2 guys years ago do it successfully. Two were DG's out of F-16 RTU, did real well, and made a good name for themselves. Another went to F-117's after being a B-52, KC-10, and U-2 guy. Less than 2 years there, he wins the Nighthawk Trophy as the top F-117 pilot in their fleet-wide competition. It depends on the person.

USERRA is blind to the reason you return to active duty. It doesn't matter. You will keep rights at your civilian job, to include your airline line number.... as long as you do not exceed the USERRA 5-year rule (though some airlines like United will give you more than that).

How is it not USERRA protected if you are in an active duty position? Some sort of GS thing?

So... When does the Rated Retiree Recall Program fire up? Hehe....

Well, at least you can fly with one in the Guard Herc units.

When looking to consolidate real estate, I believe some of you may not be thinking through the implications of congested airspace. And increasing the size or amount of SUA is not a task that happens in a few months.

Post retired a few months ago. Good riddance. Any idea where he went? I'm guessing it wasn't the airlines.

My limited knowledge came from talking to the three Army pilots that applied to the U-2 program many years ago when I worked the inter service transfers for pilots from other Services. They were helicopter pilots that had gone through the Army's fixed wing qual. Two were flying King Airs, and one was flying the ARL. It's been close to 15 years since that happened, and possibly a lot has changed... and your post alludes to the fact that it has. xcraftllc: thank you for the detailed information. Excellent post.

I was fortunate in that, while I knew they existed, I didn't deal with too many during my career.

My phrasing was a "military fixed wing program". Going through one month at FlightSafety is not one of those. Is that still how Army helicopter pilots transition into Army C-12's?

The T-38's supporting F-22 ops are using them. And a few years ago, Whitman got approved to use them... though I don't know if they actually are using them.

What do you mean "a transfer"? Into UPT? Or directly into a USAF fixed-wing unit? Last I recall, Army C-12 pilots had never been through a military fixed-wing program.

Everhart is bluffing. Even if he tried to implement Stop Loss, the blowback would be unpalatable.

May I ask why you want to join the military as a pilot?

Attention squadron commanders: when your people want to harvest palm oil, demand that they complete the Hazardous Activities Form.